Orc Warlord Quest 79

You are Ur'shal, Chieftain of the Stonetusk Clan, Warlord of the Wastes, and dragonslayer. A young and rather pathetic example of his kind perhaps, but a dragon nonetheless. With Slaagyr dead, it should be a matter of simply mopping up what remains of his forces or demanding their surrender, though you've still yet to see any sign of Joachim since your arrival in Slaagyr's lair. Perhaps the cannibal priest has decided to cut his losses and flee with the death of his master, though something tells you that you haven't heard the last of him one way or another.

For now, you have been exploring what remains of Slaagyr's lair, which has proven rather pokey for the lair of a dragon, though again you can't say you think Slaagyr ranked very high in draconic circles. What you did find however, beyond his library, storeroom, trophy room and mound of treasure, was a pair of very unusual chambers just beyond the cell which held his guest, or pet, Sofie.

Both seem to radiate magic enough that even one as magically inept as you can feel it prickling in the air, and the more ominous of the two chambers left you with a painful gnawing in your gut and a heavy nosebleed just from stepping through the door. Not particularly eager to look into it any more yourself, you have instead settled for calling upon those in your war party with a little more knowledge of such matters.

Bra'kur, Aza'ra, Isyil and the coven have congregated at the end of the corridor, Aza'ra and Isyil muttering between themselves as they peer into the darker room while the coven and Bra'kur chatter away about the crystalline one. From the sound of it, both have some ideas of what these things might be, or might have been at least, even if most of the details are going completely over your head.

So the question is which group you wish to demand explain it to you in mundane terms first.

>Ask about the dark room
>Ask about the crystalline room

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>>Ask about the dark room

>>Ask about the crystalline room

I can't believe I missed the thread where we finally slew Slaagyr.

>Ask about the crystalline room

>Ask about the crystalline room

Some user theorized that this room was made to act like a broadcast tower for Sofie, as the girl is likely an oneiromancer. I'm leaning toward this hypothesis.

Also, FUCK YES ORCS BABY. How's it hanging Lordy?

Natural twenty, orcish fury engaged.

Man, that was a roll to remember.

Hey user, s'all good.

>>Ask about the crystalline room

I still can't believe anons chose the high risk option and orcish fury...
That could have failed spectacularly.

Latent karmic retribution from the shit-monster brouhaha of old.

It was the right time for it.
It was a sensible decision.

Now that was a fun thread.

Uh, I don't think karmic retribution is the right phrase to use there.

They still speak in hushed tones of the salty flood that flowed on that day...

I'm still salty

Crystalline room wins.

Writing.

>Ask about the crystalline room

How does Bra'kur get along with the coven? Rasha must be pretty okay with him by this point, but do Lurashka and Ashuris like him at all?

I think the coven has pretty much adapted to their position as favored slaves by now. The haughtiness is more for the sake of appearances than anything.

Well they each like their own master, sure, but how do they feel about each other's masters? Ashuris like Ur because he can physically overpower her, but he has no magic of his own, and Lurashka probably feels the same way about Dru' ak for the same reason. Bra'kur is nowhere near as strong, but he's a powerful sorceror, making Rasha's master the odd one out-- do the other two ogres think she got the short end of the orc stick, or do they respect his magical ability, or what? The "chattering away" lline kind of implies they're actually friendly, which is certainly not the case between, for example, Ashuris and Ur's other underlings, so I was curious.

Lurashka belongs to Zo'rok, who most definitely cannot overpower her physically.

Fuck, right. Anyway, what about the rest of it?

The coven are haughty, but they've all adapted by now. They aren't all friends with Bra'kur or something, but they're willing to get along with him, particularly since Rasha was given to Bra'kur and removed from communal duty, which they appreciate.

You approach Bra'kur and the coven, who unlike Aza'ra and Isyil have stepped inside of the room they're investigating, Bra'kur pacing around the glowing circles on the floor as the coven mutters away to themselves.

“So, what is it?” you grunt, giving Ashuris' shapely ass a firm squeeze as you step up behind her, making the ogress' pale features flush.

“Perhaps chieftain, since you are ignorant of arcane matters, you should save your pawing of me for later and pay full attention,” Ashuris grumbles.

You give a snort, redoubling your groping of the soft flesh until Ashuris relents.

“Fine then, but don't ask me to repeat myself. It appears to be designed to resonate with fey entities, you put some sort of dream creature or fey inside of the circles for... some purpose, to draw power from them, or to fuel them with power from elsewhere perhaps.”

“It would appear to be unfinished, or faulty. The Great Bra'kur may not understand dream magic, but he knows an improperly constructed magic circle when he sees one,” Bra'kur cuts in, tapping the toe of a boot to the glowing circle, which sparks at the contact.

“Slaagyr knew oneiromancy?” you ask, glancing between the four casters.

“No, most likely he was simply dabbling with tomes of dimensional arcana, oneiromancy isn't something that a being, even a dragon, can simply learn,” Ashuris replies, shaking her head.

(cont)

“If the Great Bra'kur was to guess, the now deceased dragon was trying out a great many things with the hope of finding some means of gaining great power with minimal effort,” Bra'kur shrugs.

“Could we find some way to work this room to our advantage then?” you ask, though the blank faces of your casters suggest not.

“Unless you've been hiding away a skilled oneiromancer or dimensional mage in the camp, no, perhaps one of your sorcerers could learn such magic given time, but that would take months, perhaps years,” Ashuris frowns.

Disappointing. Oh well, before you move on, you need to decide what to do with this chamber.

>Leave it be, perhaps you can still use it someday
>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

>>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

The only person who could maybe use it is mad as balls and not in any way loyal to us.

>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

We don't need dream magic to bring the continent under our boot.

>the now deceased dragon was trying out a great many things with the hope of finding some means of gaining great power with minimal effort,” Bra'kur shrugs.

Slaagyr was a lazy hikikomori, wasn't he?

>>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

>>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use
You can be bit in the ass by anything.

Make notes of it and copy down the design if we can before destroying it.
Maybe take the materials used in its construction with us.
It's a shame to just waste it, since we have an oneiromancer daughter, and Sofie might also be one.
I'd rather save this decision until we're ready to move out, in case we find out Sofie is an oneiromancer after all.
But definitely note down whatever they can about this, its construction and such.

>>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

Yeah, at least draw the circle down and take some of the crystal if we're destroying it, so we'll have something to start from if we ever decide to try and reconstruct it.
>tfw wasting a fey-empowering magic thing when we have 2 fey in the harem, at least 1 oneiromancer among our whelps, and also the shadow fey thing that Sascha encountered, possibly.

>Leave it be, perhaps you can still use it someday
Or at least really make notes and such.

This is just my opinion, but I don't really want to conquer places with steroid-boosted fey dickery. It just isn't very orc-y.

That makes 0 sense.
It's entirely orc-y to use your slaves.

>Leave it be, perhaps you can still use it someday

>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

>Leave it be, perhaps you can still use it someday
It's realtively harmless to leave around and it's pretty clear Sofie is actually a powerful Oneriomancer.

To be clear this isn't a vote for destroying it.
We can close the tunnels leading her down nicely with the coven so it'd only be fey or people who know about that would find it.

>Leave it be, perhaps you can still use it someday

Just block up the entrance with stone so only we know its here.

Giving an already unpredictable portion of your slaves the means to acquire massive power doesn't seem very orc-y to me. Especially when we can turn on orcish fury and fist dragons to death.

I just want to conquer the world on a more martial than magical bent is all. It's a preference thing.

>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

>>Leave it be, perhaps you can still use it someday

Okay, writing.

>>Destroy it, best not to leave it behind for others to use

>I just want to conquer the world on a more martial than magical bent is all. It's a preference thing.
That ship has already sailed, we already use spell casters and rely on them.
It's retarded to limit yourself regarding what to use to achieve greatness in the manner you're suggesting.
I can understand not taking up cannibalistic flesh abomination soldiers because "muh morals", but not using spellcasters because "muh martial arts boner" seems entirely unreasonable to me.

>liking a different flavor of orc is retarded and unreasonable

Simmer down, bud. It's okay for people to like different things.

It's fine to like things, I like non-magic orcs too.
But I'm not going to neglect one kind because I like the other a bit more.

>Destroy it, best not leave it behind for others to use.

Are we taking notes and shit if we're destroying it?

That's great for you.

But I am going to neglect whatever I feel like neglecting.

+1

Yes, including math.

Of course, I never said you can't neglect whatever you want.
Just that it's not smart to do so. It's also unorc-y

“Fine, destroy it, I don't want anyone who knows what they're doing finding it and using it against us,” you grunt.

“It shouldn't be difficult, just have some of your underlings smash the crystals, any heavy blunt object should work,” Ashuris shrugs.

“Right. First though, make any notes you can about this thing, in case we can use them later.”

“Of course, chieftain,” Bra'kur nods, as you send off an orc to gather a group of warriors with clubs and hammers to dismantle the chamber.

Which brings you to the other chamber. You're reluctant to send any orcs in here to take it apart, who knows what it could do to them if they stepped inside without the protection your breastplate provides. Aza'ra and Isyil certainly seem to be in no rush to enter, lingering by the doorway as they discuss it.

“So?” you grunt, Aza'ra giving you a shrug.

“It's nasty, whatever it is.”

“I guessed that much, yeah,” you snort, Aza'ra giving a smirk, albeit not a particularly enthusiastic one.

“It's not actually anything, now, but it was in the past. The effects you feel are like... traces, the leftover essence of a very powerful interdimensional summoning.”

“What kind of summoning?” you frown, you certainly didn't encounter anything all that terrifying fighting your way in here.

“One which required a lot of pain and bloodshed, by the look of the chamber. I wouldn't imagine it was anything friendly,” Isyil shrugs, the lamia looking rather sullen, probably still not all too happy about you killing a dragon. You suppose you should be glad she didn't actually try something as foolish as to betray you to him.

(cont)

“So where is it now then?”

“This summoning could have happened weeks ago, it's nothing recent, so... no idea,” Aza'ra replies, the priestess casting a wary glance back into the chamber.

“What do you recommend then?” you frown, not too happy with the revelation of some powerful summoned creature still lurking out there somewhere.

“Leave it be, or seal it if you prefer. The influence of the summoning should fade with time, though it might lure in a few undead or particularly bloodthirsty fey looking to feed on its emanations in the meantime.”

>The coven is already exhausted, but they can seal up one more room you're sure
>Leave it be, you're done here

>Leave it be, you're done here

>Leave it be, you're done here

>Leave it be, you're done here

>>The coven is already exhausted, but they can seal up one more room you're sure

>>The coven is already exhausted, but they can seal up one more room you're sure
God fucking damn it, Joachim used this to summon something nasty didn't he

>The coven is already exhausted, but they can seal up one more room you're sure
Fucking Goatguy

Who cares, if it shows up, we'll kill it.

>the leftover essence of a VERY POWERFUL interdimensional summoning

>implying any dimension is safe from green dick

what are you, retarded?

>Leave it for now
The coven can seal it later when they aren't so worn out. Post a guard or two outside the door just in case, though

We're leaving soon.

Okay.

Writing.

Are we? There's a huge amount of loot to cart out of this place, a bunch of Slagyyr's underlings possibly still camped out outside, and all of the mountains resources to exploit. I expect we're staying here for at least one night.

Build boats

Land boats dragged by slaves on leashes and overflowing with loot when?

“Leave it, we won't be staying here for long.”

Looks like you've explored all there is to see of Slaagyr's lair, and as your warriors get to work dismantling the crystalline chamber, you contemplate your next move. You'll need to make multiple trips to carry all the treasure out of here, even if you build some boats to drag it all more effectively. On top of that, you still have Joachim and his cultists in the tunnels, and the rest of Slaagyr's forces camped outside. With luck, Sascha has sowed a seed of surrender in the humans, it would be a shame after all to waste valuable slaves, the ogres and their leader Makoor on the other hand will most likely be less cooperative, it's difficult enough keeping the half-dozen ogre slaves you have already under control without taking in a whole pack of the things.

You head back out to the main chamber once your orcs are done smashing, Sofie looking utterly unperturbed by the grisly state of her former draconic keeper.

“Goodness, how brutal,” she hums, hand to her mouth, though she quickly loses interest in staring at him to peer in curiosity at everything else littered around the chamber, and out at the balcony itself.

“What a lovely view,” she beams, the first rays of morning light just starting to rise over the horizon.

“What now Ur?” Zo'rok asks, your old friend tossing aside a jewel encrusted goblet he's been eyeing.

>Head down to the main camp with the dragon's head
>Scour the rest of the tunnels, slaughter any more cultists you find

Once we own the continent.
Build boats in great jungles, have slaves drag them to the coast.

>>Head down to the main camp with the dragon's head

>>Scour the rest of the tunnels, slaughter any more cultists you find

>>Scour the rest of the tunnels, slaughter any more cultists you find
I'd rather get any leftover surprises dealt with now before we get new slaves.

>Head down to the main camp with the dragon's head

They're either reeling or running, and either way they aren't much of a threat at the moment. Let's go collect our new slaves and give Snowfox a proper Stonetusk welcome.

>>Head down to the main camp with the dragon's head

>Scour the rest of the tunnels, slaughter any more cultists you find
no one in camp should know slaagyr is dead yet right?

>Scour the rest of the tunnels, slaughter any more cultists you find
The cultists honestly seem the most threatening, especially if we take even longer and the other factions among Slaagyr's servants cannot really come to their aid, whereas the Cultists can fuck with us whereever we go next.

>Scour the rest of the tunnels, slaughter any more cultists you find

Plant the dragon's head on a pike at the lair's entrance, and demand that Slagyyr's lieutenants come to speak with us.

>Head down to the main camp with the dragon's head

You haven't actually found a route by which his lieutenants could reach her, the balcony appears to be the only natural entrance and exit save for the one you dug yourself.

reach her? reach here. Urgh, my brain is not working right today.

If we're going into the tunnels, go and post some sneaky gits up here as sentinels.

That's interesting. How did Slagyyr give them orders? Shouting? Or did he go down there in human form?

He sent singing telegrams duh.

Interpretive instrumental rock operas interspersed with breakcore reinterpretations of Shakespearean sex scenes.

Okay, tunnel scouring it is.

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 15 (1d20)

Rolled 17 (1d20)

For Abu Hajaar.

Rolled 10 (1d20)

Hi there

S C O U R E D

You suppose before anything else, you should make sure you aren't ambushed by Joachim's forces, especially if the cannibal priest has whatever was summoned here under his control.

“We're going back down into the tunnels, I want any cultists left down there dead before the end of the day,” you shout out to your forces. They've been awake most of the night now, but they're still enthused enough with their victory to soldier on a bit longer before fatigue saps the fight from them.

“Sofie, you stay back with Isyil, wouldn't want you getting in the way once the fighting starts,” you grunt, nudging her over towards Isyil, the lamia cocking an eyebrow at her impromptu position of caretaker for the oblivious cragfolk woman.

“Hello there, might I ask what you are?” Sofie asks, resting her hand on Isyil's, beaming up at her.

“You owe me for this, chieftain,” Isyil sighs, shaking her head.

“I'll reward you all you want when we're back at camp,” you grin, leaving no doubt as to what kind of reward you have in mind, as you gesture for your forces to fall in, starting the long march down to the tunnels, a few of your orcs lashing together a makeshift platform to drag the dragon's head with you, which should save you at least one return trip when you're done.

The tunnels are as cramped and winding as you remember, when you emerge at the base of the coven's path up into the mountain. You can hear the echoes of distant muttering and chanting over the low buzz of vermin in the air and the squirming of their larvae, the cultists are still down here somewhere.

(cont)

Or'kug and Koz'rak lead a pair of scouting parties out ahead, picking over side passages and caverns, while Izeta and Vor'zal stalk along by your sides, the skinchanger and the hoary Tak'zaya Ska priest's combined senses more than enough to sense any approaching enemy. You suspect however, from the way Izeta blanches every time she sniffs the air, that right now she is wishing her senses were not quite so sharp.

Fortunately, your scouts and your main force do their job well, and you manage to encircle and pick off numerous smaller and disorganized pockets of cultists, caught gorging themselves on rotting flesh, sleeping, or in one particularly unpleasant instance, rutting amidst the corpses. So far however, you have yet to see any sign of Joachim himself, the priest strangely absent no matter how deep into his rancid domain you push.

After a couple of hours of such conflicts, Koz'rak returns from his scouting, giving you a shrug. “We found what looks like the cult's main base, where they do their rituals, but it's empty. Looks like there were people there recently, but I think Joachim's taken a bunch of his cultists and fled deeper into the tunnels, must've realized he was outnumbered.”

You frown, perhaps you could hunt him down, you doubt the cultists are all that fast compared to your warriors, but who knows how much of a headstart they have on you, how far into unexplored territory of the old dwarven trade network you'd need to push. You can't imagine your warriors would be eager, and you risk many more losses in the dark, and not just from the cultists you'd wager, but it's frustrating to just let him go...

>If he wants to run, let him, you'll kill him if he ever shows his face again
>Hunt him deeper into the tunnels

>If he wants to run, let him, you'll kill him if he ever shows his face again

>>Hunt him deeper into the tunnels

>>If he wants to run, let him, you'll kill him if he ever shows his face again